Those affiliated with the Christian religion remained the largest group; 59 per cent (33.2 million) of usual residents in England and Wales.

This is a decrease of 13 percentage points since 2001 when 72 per cent (37.3 million) of usual residents stated their religion as Christian. It is the only group to have experienced a decrease in numbers between 2001 and 2011 despite population growth.

The second largest response category in 2011 was no religion. This increased 10 percentage points from 15 per cent (7.7 million) of usual residents in 2001, to 25 per cent (14.1 million) in 2011.

Plus, as someone who has lived in a Buddhist country and studied alongside Buddhists, I just have to faceplam at this:

Quote:

Buddhists and Shintoists believe in many gods.

Ish: Please tell me your dust point was a purposeful nod towards a certain teenage fiction book, as if it is, your trolling just went over 9000 on the awesome scale.

Kudos: No-one has denied that atheists can be religious, in fact most have stated quite the opposite and the fact they can only further strengthens the point that atheism is not a religion, itself. To be an atheism does not require active belief or practice of any kind, just a lack of a belief in one thing, a deity, this why atheists can believe a whole host of things and only linked by one small lack of belief in a certain thing. I mean if a lack of belief in something is all it takes to be a religion now, then surely that means that everyone who does not believe in unions or magic is now part of a religion??? Religion is about positive action and belief in a certain set of things, while atheism is negative action (no action) in regards to one thing. There are small villages in East Asia where the idea of god does not exist, so these villages are atheist by definition, does that mean their simple lack of knowledge of even the idea of god makes them part of a religion they are probably equally unaware of? That is just a baize way of looking at things.

Those obsessed with making atheism a religion, whether they are religious or otherwise, seem to completely miss the point of religion and are just distorting what atheism means.
The main things religions need:
1=Common practices-There is no problem practice among atheists, I do not need to act in a religion way to be an atheist.

2=Scared or holy-There are objects whatsoever linked to atheism.

3=Rules and commonally held principles-There are no rules or principles related to atheism.

4=Belief in the spiritual-(Note, spiritual and deity are different) Atheists do not have to believe anything to be an atheist, they just need to lack belief in deity.

5=Set of common cultural ideals and values=atheism has no culture, idealogy or values.

6=Unity=there is no unity or organisation that is by definition atheist, there are movements made up of atheists, but these are pressure groups made up to promote atheism at most, and as such, they seem to be more social pressure groups. To call them the foundations of a religion would make organisations like Greenpeace a religion.

7=Faint=Atheism is founded on a lack of faint, if anything.

I could go on, but I think the point is there, religion is a quite defined cultural construct, atheism is just a state of being.

As for worldviews, well I think calling atheism a worldview overstates atheism by some degree unless you define your whole existence by 1 single concept, which seems simplistic to me. I also think calling religion a worldview rather understates religion, of course, if religious groups what to just give up being organised intuitions and social groups, and become just set of commonly held beliefs with no real affirmative actions, then I wholly support their just giving up on being a religion. ;)